My Article Published: "Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning" 🎊

Thrilled that my article, “Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning,” was published today at Women on Writing. Read the article below, and take the exercise for a spin.

Also check out this link to my new online class, FROM BETTER TO BEST: Writing Fictional Beginnings that Hook Readers, that begins Friday, January 24th. 😊

Without further ado: ta-da! 🎊

“Finding Your Fiction Draft’s Best Beginning”

By: Melanie Faith

 Here are three things that share a commonality: home renovation, finding a supportive life or business partner, earning a degree. What’s their similarity? 

While you think about it, let’s ponder our attention spans, which have grown quite a bit shorter in recent years. Think about how quickly we move onto the next book, song on streaming, or post on social media if it doesn’t grab our attention and hold it. Add to that the fact that publishers receive thousands of manuscripts a year, all vying for attention, and it’s pretty staggering.  

So, what do our initial three examples have in common? They all require a big time investment (often much longer than anticipated) and tend to test our patience at various steps until we reach our goal. If there are consistent through lines in life, it is that most of our efforts require regrouping, refining, and numerous revisions.

With so much streaming content and instant entertainment available and so few minutes of free time each day, it’s even more important than ever that we writers intrigue our readers from the start or else there’s a world of other options they’ll choose from. Gone are the days of the slow-burn build-up of a few pages. While it takes more time and effort to rewrite opening pages, it’s well worth it to hook our readers.

What should we do to ensure that our beginnings make a positive, have-to-keep-reading-this impact?

·         Bring in the Buddies: Have you looked so often at your draft that your brain is tired? Or are you moderately sure your opening is fine, but then again… An external reader can be invaluable, either way. Props if they are another author, but they don’t have to be. Give your first pages/chapter to willing friends or colleagues and ask what one passage they liked best; this is the element that should front-end your next draft.  Feel free to get the opinion of another reader or two, but don’t ask so many readers that you get numerous conflicting opinions, which can be confusing. In my own experience, asking between one and three readers is a sweet spot to get the perfect amount of feedback on whether my current opening works well. If your readers are also writers, make sure to return the favor for them sometime. Another option: send just the first page and have them note what they think is the most interesting or important line. This really zeroes in on whether the current opening lines flop or fly.   

·         Heed the Hunch: You know that line that made you smile when you wrote it? That line that sort of shimmered from the page or made you stop and feel surprised?  That little jolt of wow or that little tickle of hmmm is your inner writer letting you know that something impactful has just landed on the page. If that passage is already on your first page, great! Leave it there. But if it’s not, what if you moved it forward? I’ve often moved favorite lines forward and then either cut out the original opening and written transitions to the latter parts of the chapter or merged the original opening into other parts of the manuscript. Either method can work well, depending on the story’s needs and your own preferred editing methods.

·         Skip Ahead: Newsflash: your first chapter doesn’t have to be your first chapter. Let me rephrase that: the chapter that’s currently first may actually not be the best final-draft opener. Instead, a second, third, or even later chapter might hold a more compelling way to open your narrative. Feel free to move a scene or a whole chapter forward.

Try this exercise! Reread your draft’s current opening page or two and answer these questions (or ask a friend) to see if you might have a better opening that’s currently much later in your draft:

·         Is there action in the opening scene?  

·         Is there immediate conflict for the protagonist to struggles against?

·         Is it clear from the first page or two who is telling this story?

·         Is the protagonist compelling in this first chapter?

If the answer to any of these questions is “not really” or “not as much as there could be,” then it’s likely you have a faster-paced, more absorbing opening scene that you could move forward. Remember that editors, agents, and readers need your opening hook to grab their attention on page one or else they could stop reading. Sharpen the imagery, characterization, dialogue, or setting that will keep those pages turning.

Photo courtesy of Eilis Garvey and Unsplash.com.

Happy Holidays & a Year of Daily Doodles 🎉

Happy Holidays! I hope this season finds you all inspired, resting, and excited for 2025 ahead in less than a week.

I’ve worked on a doodle project for the past year that I’m set to complete on Tuesday. I’d love to share about it now, with some coordinating drawings. Without further ado:

“13 Things I Learned from [Almost] a Year of Daily Doodling”

It just feels good to draw. Period.  I knew this intrinsically as a child, and I got to relearn it this year.

The less pristine, the better, the more confidence. During January to around March, I frequently made a soft under drawing in pencil, which I would then trace with a pen or marker before erasing my guiding lines. By around April, my confidence had grown so that I rarely grabbed a pencil first. From July onward, I can’t remember grabbing a pencil to start at all. 

Ink-feel is a thing. Some days, I wanted slippery, twirly gel ink or a smooth ballpoint or the gentle flutter of wooden colored pencils while other days I liked either the blunt ooze of a thick marker or highlighter or the waxy appeal of crayons that slowed me down. Just like picking hues to use, my mood could dictate the material I grabbed. Once or twice, I bought new markers or pens to play with. There’s something very affirming and soothing to the nervous system about making marks on paper, even if the drawing doesn’t turn out. Okay, especially when the drawing doesn’t turn out.

Limits open you up. The most time I spent on a drawing was 20 minutes, but that was mostly in January-February. After that, my daily doodle journaling tended to be less than 10 minutes, including any coloring with colored pencils/markers/coupy pencils/crayons. The more I intuitively trusted that I could make good marks, the easier it got to increase my speed.

Phones are great for reference photos:  Sometimes I could draw using my mind’s eye, but for other days, a quick image search on my phone yielded many options for reference photos that really helped as I considered various angles and shapes and details to pick and choose from for my own doodle. I reminded myself that professional artists have long used references to research, prepare, and/or draw. No shame in the game.

Yeah, this is drawing, but feel free to combine with captions whenever you want to: Sometimes, I drew little captions or a sentence or two of explication or just arrows and words to label my drawing. I’ve read a few artists’ (published) notebooks and drawing how-to craft books since 2020 that show other artists who integrate small bursts of prose as well, which gave me the idea (and the permission) to mix and match.

Prompts are magical: I have two or three sketchbooks I’ve made intermittent doodles in over the past two or three years, but having a daily page with a specific prompt on it took the what-should-I-try-to-make decision away and opened me up to whatever the prompt asked for each day. After drawing, I made it a ritual to mark the next day’s prompt with a page marker, but I didn’t read the prompt until it was time to draw each day.

Ditch or amend prompts whenever you want to: Now and again, I didn’t know how to make what the prompt asked or didn’t feel like following the prompt, so I didn’t.  Like the day I decided to draw a bunch of stars. I just made something else up on the spot. Also liberating.

Some drawings can’t be improved with more focus or more effort—that’s fine, let it go, and you’ll draw more tomorrow and the next day.

 Some drawings can bloom with more effort or focus. You’ll know the difference. One day, I skipped a space and labeled the new drawing as “take 2.” If you want to keep trying, then keep going.

Watching the pages accumulate, even if most of the drawings are still not braggable or even what you’d hoped, is one of the best feelings ever. Before starting the daily doodling, I had more of a when-the-mood-struck drawing practice. Not exactly the best way to grow one’s art.  Becoming stronger at an art requires more than just dabbling when the mood strikes. I knew this from my writing, and I had the chance to relearn this with my drawing.

Imperfect? Who cares? The journey was for the fun and for the growth in it, both of which have paid back handsomely. 

Drawing every day makes me want to draw more. Once I finish the year this week, I know that I’ll want to continue to draw regularly. Paging through my daily doodles from January 1st to late December, I can see how my drawings have gotten more secure, more space-taking, and also more okay with the mistakes in perspective. Here’s to more doodles ahead!

My Craft Article Published Today: "Build Better Beginnings: from Throat-Clearing to Motor-Running Fiction!" 🎃

Splendid news! I’m excited that my craft article, “Build Better Beginnings: from Throat-Clearing to Motor-Running Fiction,” was published today as part of the WOW! Women on Writing Market Newsletter.

Also, check out the amazing interview with Paula Munier (by Donna Judith Essner), the literary markets actively seeking submissions of writing, and so many more literary resources to spark your writing.

I also had the chance to contribute two seasonal photos to the article, including this one.

Here’s a fun excerpt. “First drafts of narratives frequently gain momentum a few pages or a chapter in, but readers must be entertained from the start or else they don’t continue reading. Let’s take a few looks at some splendid, sure-fire ideas for building beginnings that reel in readers.

• Don’t hold off. Want, want, want, immediately! Unmet desires and needs give the protagonist something to act on and to react against from the get-go. Instead of leading up slowly to the protagonist’s struggle, show the character already struggling in the first scene. Even better if they struggle from the first page.

• Limit your number of characters in the first pages. A deeper dive into one character—rather than a slower, cocktail-party-style, round-robin introduction—gives your readers a chance to shadow your protagonist and to feel firmly situated into their life and limitations before meeting the entire cast of characters. It’s great to introduce the antagonist early, though, as pushback motivates the protagonist’s need to act.“

Read the rest at: the WOW! Market Newsletter. 🎃

My Flash Fiction Published at Bright Flash Literary Review! 🎉

I’m excited to announce that my flash fiction, “It was just supposed to be,” was published this week at Bright Flash Literary Review! 📚

Check out my story below as well as the awesome stories by fellow authors at their current issue. If you write flash, consider submitting, too.

“It was just supposed to be”

a quick zip through aisle seven and back.

Somebody said she’d moved outside Rawston somewhere after, so it never occurred to him that Tuesday before New Year that he’d turn the corner with the laundry detergent in his right hand and there was Maisy.

“Hey,” was all he thought to say.

“My sister needed a few things,” she half-smiled.

Photo courtesy of Eduardo Soares on Unsplash.com, free stock

There was a baby strapped onto her in one of those carrier things he didn’t know the name of. She was someone’s mom now. That was weird, and new. Fifteen years together. They never. He never thought she’d wanted one. He didn’t. Doesn’t.

The baby bopped legs and arms in herky-jerky movements. The baby had Maisy’s curls. 

“Just getting this,” and he held up the neon plastic jug like he was proving something, as if until he’d pointed it out it’d been invisible.

Should he have said something, asked about the baby—Maisy’s baby—a name maybe? An age? He hadn’t seen any teeth when the baby had grinned at Maisy, but how old are kids when they get front teeth? Do back ones come in first?

Maisy had bounced a bit on the balls of her feet near the stacked boxes of soda crackers; the baby laughed in reply. They made a tableau together like he’s seen mothers and kids do on TV.

“Yep, everyone needs clean clothes,” she said.

She looked tired in her eyes, but happier than she ever was their last few years. Calmer somehow.

“Good…good point. Hey, great seeing you,” he said, because he could think of nothing else to say but random inanities. The baby’s hair the exact raven black of Maisy’s the night they’d met as freshmen. He’s got some grays now.

The baby had some other guy’s eyes. Weird. He’d turned away.

“You, too, Darvin,” she said, using her sympathy voice.

The baby kicked into cracker boxes, and the front one wobbled but didn’t fall.

“Look what you’ve done, little cutie. Yes, you, my little cutie,” Maisy cooed and laughed.

He ducked into aisle four; he dropped the detergent onto a random shelf. No longer any energy left for waiting in line, for another possible sighting. He couldn’t. He was outta there.

He lightninged through electronic double doors, out of breath but not running.

He’ll grab another detergent at the QuickShop after work tomorrow and stew about Maisy tonight.  He leans back in the tan recliner; they’d picked it for their first apartment after college. He’d liked the red one, but Maisy said tan would go with more things. She’d been right about that. About more than that, he guessed. 

He should take his mother up on her offer to reupholster it.

“Give it a new look,” Mom had said. “Or else donate it to charity, get something new.”

Yeah, but the chair’s the last thing left from their years together.

He keeps the living room lights off tonight; his laptop casts a pale green light that wobbles against the opposite white wall, the same color it was when he moved in.

Is Maisy still at her sister’s on Root Lane? Seven miles is nothing; how easily he could jump in his truck, drive out that way. Just to see.

He presses back into the tan upholstery, but there’s nowhere further to go. It was far easier when he could think of Maisy as alone, like him, near Rawston at night.

He feels it in his gut: Maisy’s gone home to the man whose eyes the baby shares. Their baby.

Biography:  Melanie Faith is a night-owl writer and editor who likes to wear many hats, including as a poet, photographer, professor, and tutor. Three of her craft books about writing were published by Vine Leaves Press in 2022, including her latest, From Promising to Published. She enjoys ASMR videos, reading, teaching online writing classes, and tiny houses. Learn more at https://melaniedfaith.com/ .

Reach 🤩

Reach

Sketch in colored pencils & black felt-tip pen.

I haven’t shared a doodle in a while, so I figured it was about time to break out my sketchbook and play a bit.  

I was thinking yesterday, too, about swing-arm lamps. The kind architects often have on their desks, but sometimes also students and offices. I didn’t know that they were referred to as “swing-arm” lamps until a quick search-engine search delivered that little golden nugget into my life, which I now share with you. 😉

Speaking of innovation and knowledge, I read a book two or three years ago about the Bauhaus, a German school of design, arts (including theater, sculpture, pottery, stained glass, wooden toys, and poster design), and architecture in 1919-the early 1930s. Fine arts and crafts and some very sharp-looking designs were created by young students and their professors which continue to inspire designers of furniture and architecture. They made innumerable creations in their carpentry and metal-working workshops, from chairs and swivel lamps and photography and arts posters for theater performances given at the school to coffee-and-tea sets and glassworks and weaving and you name it. If the design was geometric, spare, innovative, and functional during that time period, it was probably cooked up and refined at the Bauhaus.  

I’ve never owned a swing-arm lamp, nor a gooseneck lamp (which I think of as their fanciful second cousin), but I’ve often admired both. There’s something very appealing about the way they’re designed—form and function working hand-in-glove. They don’t just sit there stationary, but offer instant flexibility for the user. Wherever the light is needed, le voilà! Here we go; instant warm spotlight. Then, economically pushed back when not in use—until the next time.

Continued growth as a writer often requires a reaching process that combines a hearty blending of the initial sizzle of the imagination intermingled with the stability and support of consistent application, mixing the heat of creating with the cooler temperatures of refining and editing the vision into new forms for sharing.

This end-of-year time gets all of our gears turning with goals we’ve finished and those we haven’t and those we’d like to dream up for next year. Without putting pressure on ourselves (because nobody needs more of that!), it’s a good season for this kind of if-you-can-imagine-it-you-can-make-it-happen reflection.

It’s a good time for downshifting, daydreaming, and putting some plans into action for the coming months.  I have the kind of mind that needs no encouragement to cook up a project or ten and imagine the endless permutations and exciting possibilities. I also have the kind of mind (and enough experience as a writer and creative) to know it takes time, organization, trial-and-error patience, and planning to see a project to its conclusion so that it’s ready to share. I try to give my imagination free reign for a while, and then I begin to organize that wide expanse into a series of steps (accounting for setbacks and a learning curve along the way).

I’m cooking up some fun projects for 2024 that I can’t wait to share. At the moment, one project in particular is very new, wobbly, interesting ground for me, stretching what I already know with the many, many things I don’t. It includes a-million-and-one steps that I’m learning (and reading about and trial-and-erroring and trying-again-and-againing).  Stay tuned!

I am delighted to share that I have three online classes that I hope will inspire fellow creative writers and artists to invest in their own dreams and goals and talents as well as to try new creative goals that will inspire reaching into new territory as well.

If you have a friend you haven’t purchased a gift for yet or would like to invest in your own artistic process, I’d love to work with you and a friend! Mark your calendars. All three courses accepting sign-ups now 😊:

*In Tune: Writing about Music in Fiction (starting Friday, February 2, 2024; 4-week class; NEW!):

https://wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_Music.php

*An Inside Look at Launching as a Freelance Editor (one-afternoon webinar; 1-2 pm ET; Friday, April 12, 2024)

https://wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_FreelanceEditorWebinar.php

*Art Making for Authors (starting Friday, August 2, 2024; 4-week class; NEW!)

https://wow-womenonwriting.com/classroom/MelanieFaith_ArtMaking.php

I also have craft books aplenty that make excellent gifts, such as: From Promising to Published:

Here’s to reaching into our imaginations and cooking up the projects that will interest and sustain our creative growth both now and throughout 2024!

Write on!

In Tune: Writing about Music in Fiction! 🎶

I’m crafting some exciting new projects for 2024, including a delightful 4-week online writing class at WOW! for February.

Introducing: IN TUNE: Writing About Music in Fiction!

If you’re looking to treat yourself to some writing motivation or looking for the perfect holiday or birthday gift for the writer in your life, look no further! This class will rock! 🤩🎸🥁

Course description:

“Fiction is filled with references to music: from high-school dances and music-school students, singers, music teachers and lessons, garage bands and musical instruments to records, rock concerts and folk/indie festivals and coffee-house performances, opera and musical-theatre performances, and so much more. Many of us spend our happiest hours with music in the forefront or background of our lives as soundtrack. There’s a type of music-inspired prose for as many musical genres as you enjoy.

Whether you’re writing a scene or story about a music practice, a novel with a musician or music fan as a protagonist, or just want to know more about how musical fiction works and/or add musical references, vivid characterizations of vocal performance, or music-centered scenes or references to your writing, this course will explore how music culture, sound, setting, POV, and more are portrayed within fiction to enhance and inspire your own rhythmic, compelling prose. Knowing how to read musical notes isn’t required for this class—just the desire and sincere appreciation for both music and literature and to add another tool to your literary toolkit.

Students will choose one novel with a musical plot to read independently, and the instructor will provide excerpts from music novels as well as handouts and a weekly writing assignment to get the muse melodically flowing! Join us for this new course that’s sure to strike a chord.”

To the great joy of writing and music! Sign-ups open now! Clickety-click: IN TUNE: Writing About Music in Fiction!

New Notebook, New Season, New Doodle📝

Starting a new notebook—this little 5 x 7 beauty was a whole $1.25—is always a good feeling for me. Potentiality on each page. I’ve been experimenting with different types and sizes of paper for my doodles.

Last night, right before sleep, I broke out my new notebook, my 0.7 mm lead pencil, and my colored pencils and made an outlined sketch of a photographer. It was a peaceful, simmering hour as I drew a preliminary/reference sketch on scrap paper, opened the second page of the notebook (I often skip the first, as it sits a bit askew in the binding), and then started this drawing.

Filling in the figure was a particularly pleasant part of the process as well—colored pencils force a kind of quiet contemplation and over-and-over-and-over patience that slows my thinking and flashes me back to childhood hours quietly coloring or writing.

It’s probably not surprising that I would choose to draw a photographer in motion. One of my other happy places is photography (a few years ago, I wrote a book that combined my writing with my photography practice and tips, Photography for Writers).

Much like when writing, when I’m behind the lens, the daily drops away. I like the challenge of making what I see and how I see it into a composition. I like that it’s not an easy process nor a process I can take for granted or even a process that I fully steer, but that there are many do-overs available—as many as I have time and inclination to make.

Mostly, photography is a place of rare transcendence where the world slows and I make my thinking and my seeing into something at once me and not me. It’s a good space.

This is my first go-’round with sketching what I’m calling a silhouette portrait. Kindly ignore the erased shoulder and erased original feet, which I only realized after pondering them were pointing in the wrong direction from her body’s stance along with the smudge at the bottom of the page by the date. We’ll just call those markers of authenticity.😁

I have to say, though: I was a little surprised that one or two elements of this drawing felt to me like what it feels when I’m behind my camera: a liminal in-between space that just is what it is and unfolds as it should (if, frequently, not as I would have originally imagined).

Or maybe this is just my fancy-pants way of saying I couldn’t believe it actually sort of resembles a human and not a stick figure. 😆

The little notebook says “Plan” on the cover, but as we know, there are many things we simply cannot plan. Mostly, we can move, slowly, in a slightly new direction and see what happens, and then repeat the process as the happening unfolds. Drawings, photographs, writing, ourselves—all unfolding.

One-Year Book Birthday Giveaway!

February marks the one-year book birthday for my book, Writing It Real: Creating an Online Course for Fun and Profit! In celebration, I’m going to run a book giveaway to share this splendid book that’s packed with tips and insights aplenty on everything from brainstorming your class idea to crafting your syllabus to running your class and so much more to keep educators motivated and interactive with their students.

Between now and Wednesday, February 15th, 2023, if you’re interested in winning a free copy, just leave a comment at my Instagram @frompromisingtopublished99 or here at my website in the Comments section of the post, letting me know what type of course you’d love to create and teach.

Examples might include but are not limited to: science fiction, poetry, flash fiction, romance novels, photography, introductory figure study, pottery, creative nonfiction, memoir, journalism, you name it.

Feel free to add a detail or two of why this class idea interests you, if you’d like.

After the 15th, I’ll enter all names from the comments into a hat (‘cause I run old-school that way🥳) and pick some winners. 😊📔Good luck, and teach on!

New Month, Continued Inspiration 🎆

Happy February!

I’m excited for all that this new month will bring, including my Leaping Worlds online creative writing class for historical-fiction and time-travel writers.

Begins Friday, February 10th. There are still a few spaces left, and I’d love to work with you and a friend. Details at: clickety-click.

Also, here’s a favorite and motivating Hafiz quote to enjoy.

To February, and sweet inspiration!

"Six Methods for Sparking Historical and Time-Travel Stories" 🎉

Super excited that my article was published today at Women on Writing! Check out my craft article below, and learn more about my online Leaping Worlds writing class on this topic that starts Friday, February 10 (sign-ups open!) at: clickety-click/class info!

“Six Methods for Sparking Historical and Time-Travel Stories”

By: Melanie Faith

One of many wonderful facets of writing stories set in the past is that initial aha when an idea lands. While that spark’s arrival can be unpredictable, there are tried-and-true ways that authors of historical fiction and time-travel books employ to discover inspiration that sends them running to their computers.

Let’s take a look at six of these methods.  Take one (or more!) for a spin today.  Glean inspiration from:

Online articles.  Many of my students have found their story ideas while reading either primary sources (first-hand accounts and/or articles written at the time of the events) or secondary sources (articles written in later time periods about historical eras). Most newspapers and colleges now have online databases and articles of literally thousands of letters and historical documents (such as birth, marriage, legal, and land-deed records) that can be perused for free or nearly free. If you take classes or teach, most universities subscribe to database services where you can find even more sources, but even a general online search outside of a school’s website can yield a field-day of resources on just about any historical figure, fact, epoch, or related historical topic you can imagine. Once you find an article of interest, you can then refine your search by typing the precise person, place, or event and filter articles, such as by year published/posted to narrow and focus your search. Have a notebook or word-processing document open for taking notes; always list the author and URL and/or bookmark your sources for handy return to this info for fact-checking later.

Photographs. Are you a visual person? Are you the kind of person who loves paging through old photo albums or yearbooks? Then this method is likely going to lead to stories aplenty for you. I remember visiting historical sites in elementary and high school and being fascinated by tintype photos as well as always being the partygoer magnetized by the photo albums on a nearby shelf. Perusing photos for what people wore, how they did their hair, how they assembled (or didn’t) as a group in photos, who was missing from the photos and why, who took center-stage in the photos, whether the shots were made in a formal studio or by a personal camera in the driveway before the prom, all of these aspects of photos intrigued me and created sense impressions and questions that could easily lead to great fiction. Photos are especially great for writing descriptions of indoor and outdoor settings as well as physical details for characters.

Questions we don’t know the answers to at the moment. This is one of my favorites. So often, I’ll stumble upon a document or a reference in a nonfiction book and several questions will pop into my mind about related ideas that didn’t (for good reason) make it into whatever I’m reading. I keep my writing notebook handy and jot down questions that arise from resources. Later on, these questions can lead to exploration into a character’s motivations and struggles that inform their actions and possibly whole scenes can result. A little bit like a magician’s colorful scarf—one question leads to another and another related question that can reveal images, dialogue, cultural references, and more to inspire writing.

Memories. What did you like to learn about most in history classes in school? Conversely, what did teachers never talk about that they should have or you wish they would have? Answering these questions could certainly help with setting and character development if/when you plunk your protagonist in the middle of the era you’ve always found fascinating.

Visits to museums or national parks. Almost every community around the world has hidden-gem museums about their town, region, or country with amazing historical resources for low-cost entrance and/or donations. Ditto for university and college archives that are open to the public, to alumni, and/or to the school community. Check websites or contact your local archivist or docents for hours or to email/text to arrange a visit. Want to walk through some history? National parks can be inspiring resources and a great way to take a break from the desk for the day. Take a camera and/or photos with your phone to remember specifics about landscape later. Bonus: jot some sensory impressions and notes while you’re there—details flit through our minds on-site that we are sure we’ll remember …and then don’t.

Reading.  Hello, libraries!  It doesn’t matter how many books there are about a topic or historical figure or era or time-travel element—there’s always room for more. When I want to write about a certain era, I’ll read through a few recent and/or long-ago books about the topic, to see what’s already been written and where there might be pockets of information missing or where fresh ideas for a different POV or character arise. Reading and leaving reviews for others’ books is also a great way to give back to the literary community while informing yourself and immersing yourself in a time period to inspire your own totally different but equally interesting historical book.